


brighter than all we left behind

by Murf1307



Series: 2018 V-Day Fic Blast #2: Everything Else [5]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: First Dates, Kid Fic, M/M, Marlene Sneaks, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 15:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13906821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murf1307/pseuds/Murf1307
Summary: Cloud helps Marlene make Valentines for her classmates at school.  Barret doesn't quite know what to do with that.





	brighter than all we left behind

Barret gets home to Edge tired, but satisfied.  The work he's doing now is good work that's worth something, and it pays well.  He wishes, sometimes, that he didn't have to spend so much time on the road, but it is what it is.

For a good future for Marlene, he'd do damn near anything.

Anyway, the point is, he gets home.  Tifa’s apartment above the bar is big enough for all of them — Her, Denzel, Marlene, him…

And Cloud.

Cloud is like a ghost sometimes, though Barret would never say that to his face.  But he's pretty sure that in the last two years, he's seen Cloud maybe ten times total, including holidays.

So he's a little surprised when he steps into the bar at two in the afternoon to find Cloud sitting at one of the tables, helping Marlene with what looks like a blizzard of red and pink paper hearts.  She's chattering at him, and he’s smiling, just a little.

Marlene catches sight of Barret, though, and she leaps up to rush over to him, shouting, “Daddy!”

He picks her up in his good arm and swings her 'round.  “How’s my girl?”

Marlene laughs.  “I'm good!  Cloud’s helping me make school Valentines!  Tifa and Denzel are grocery shopping.” She wrinkles her nose a little.  “Shopping’s boring.”

Cloud chuckles, drawing Barret’s attention.  The dubious look on his face clearly says,  _ She won't be saying that in a couple of years _ , and Barret almost chuckles, too.  Instead, he settles Marlene on his hip and moves toward the table.

“Valentines, huh?” he asks, mostly to Marlene.

“Yeah!  We’re making paper hearts and Cloud’s making the words on them all pretty, 'cause his handwriting’s prettier.”

Cloud chuckles again.  “Thanks, Mar.  But yours is really good, too, for your age.”

Barret grins a little and sits down.  Marlene scrambles off if him and into her own seat.  “You should help us, Daddy!”

“I don’t know,” Barret says, shaking his head a little.  “I haven’t done anything like this before, not since I was real little.”  He’s afraid he might ruin the paper with his metal hand.

“Your right hand has a knife function, right?” Cloud asks.  “You could cut some of these construction paper sheets in halves, maybe?”

Barret honestly hadn’t considered that, and he nods.  “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”  He turns his attention to Marlene.  “Be careful, my hand’s gonna be a knife for a little while,” he warns her.  “Wouldn’t wanna accidentally hurt my little girl.”

“You won’t, Daddy,” Marlene says breezily, drawing hearts and flowers on a paper heart and not really paying either of them much attention for the moment, and Cloud’s little smile widens a little.

Barret’s struck by the realization, as he rearranges his hand for the knife configuration, that Cloud has, in the last two years, built a rapport with Marlene.  He takes the stack of construction paper when Cloud hands it to him, but he's almost on autopilot; it feels like a revelation, knowing at at some point, Cloud started parenting her, too.

Things have always been a little awkward between them, particularly since that ill-fated night at the Gold Saucer.  He'd invited Cloud to walk with him, but when it actually seemed like something might  _ happen,  _ he’d panicked and accused Cloud of something awful.

He wonders, sometimes, what might have happened if he hadn’t.  He wonders it, now, and wonders if it would look any different from this.

A strange, gentle little ache twists in his gut.  He tries to ignore it, slicing through construction paper and listening to Marlene chatter about school, and how excited she is about the Valentine's Day party they’ll be having.

They both, him and Cloud, seem content to just let Marlene talk as she glues hearts together and sticks them to construction paper.  It's nice.  Comfortable.

Barret catches Cloud looking at him at one point, but when their eyes meet, Cloud’s immediately drop back to what he’s doing.

It’s awkward, and, as always, Barret doesn't know how to fix it.

 

* * *

 

Marlene goes to bed early that night, and Barret goes upstairs with her to tuck her in.

“Daddy?” she asks him, the sheets up around her shoulders as she looks up at him.  “Do you like Cloud?”

She’s a smart kid, so he doesn't know how she means that.

“Course I do, sweetheart,” he tells her, gently petting her head with his left hand.  “He’s good to you, after all.”

She frowns a little.  “No, I mean, do you  _ like  _ him?  Do you want him to be your Valentine?”

He blushes, even though it doesn't really show on him.  She can read him like a book, apparently, and all he can do is admit it: “Yeah, sweetie, I do.”

“You should ask him.” She grins.  “I think he likes you too.”

 

* * *

 

Him and Cloud are both still in town when Valentine's Day rolls around.  Marlene goes off to school with her big stack of cards and a smile so big it makes Barret’s heart hurt.

When he looks to his left, Cloud’s grinning, too.

It strikes him, because Cloud’s seen a lot of shit, and getting a real smile out of him is rare.  But here, dropping off Marlene at school, he’s grinning.

Barret’s chest aches a little more sharply.  It feels like something he wants — spending time with Cloud and Marlene together, and figuring out just what it takes to get Cloud to smile like that more often.

Cloud glances at him, catches him looking again, and the grin slips away.  Cloud rubs the back of his own neck, awkwardly.

“Hey,” Barret says, “You wanna grab some grub?”

Cloud blinks, like it's the last thing in the world he expected.  “Uh, yeah.  Sure.  Where?”

“Ain’t there a noodle bar a couple blocks away?”

“Yeah, I think so.”  Cloud nods, and turns in the direction of the noodle bar.  Then, he stops.  “Wait, do you think they’d be open this early?”

He hadn’t thought of that.  “Oh, right.  Huh.”  He shrugs.  “You know any good places for breakfast?”

Cloud shrugs back.  “Not really.  Usually when I’m in Edge I just eat at home.”

Barret nods.  “Yeah.  Huh.  Wanna take a walk?”

It’s...oddly similar to how he’d asked Cloud out that night in the Gold Saucer, but he tries not to make it obvious that he’s reminded of it; who knows?  Maybe Cloud won’t notice, or if he notices, he won’t care.

Cloud seems to, though, because he flushes, just a little.  “Yeah, sure.”

“Cool.”  Barret looks away, moving a little down the street, hoping Cloud will follow.

Cloud keeps pace, but neither of them really says anything after that for a while.  Neither of them is really all that talkative when they’re alone together — they never have been.  Barret wonders why, sometimes, but for the most part, it’s kind of nice.

He glances over at Cloud after a few blocks of silence.  “Y’know, you’re real good with Marlene.”

“She’s a good kid.”  Cloud looks up at him briefly, like he’s trying to measure the situation.  “You’ve done a good job with her.”

Barret feels a little warmed by the compliment.  “Don’t think it’s just me, though.  I mean, she lives with you and Tifa, and I’m on the road so much.”

“So’m I,” Cloud points out.  He raises his eyebrows.  “So maybe we oughtta be complimenting Tifa, huh?”

Barret laughs.  “Yeah, maybe.”

Cloud smiles, just a little.  “But thanks, anyway.  She misses you, when you’re gone.”

“Yeah?” He wishes he didn’t have to be gone so much.

“Yeah.  But she’s proud of you.”  Cloud’s little smile gets a little bigger, tugging up one corner of his mouth.  “You’re a hero, in her eyes.”

Barret huffs a little laugh.  “Bet she thinks you are, too.  Savin’ the world’ll do that.”

Cloud laughs, too.  “Yeah.”  He stretches, tipping his chin up to look up at the sky.  He looks...relaxed.  Barret wonders if this means that Cloud’s finally turned the corner — everyone’s had a lot of shit to deal with in the last few years, but Cloud’s taken the longest to get better.  

“It’s nice,” Barret says.  “Knowin’ that we can still do all this shit.  That we made it.”  There were definitely days, back in the worst times, that this didn’t feel possible.

“Yeah.  Some days...some days it just doesn’t feel real.”  Cloud’s voice is soft, almost reverent.  “There’s still...there’s still a world, y’know?  It can get better.  And we can live in it.”  He exhales.  “After everything, we still get to live in it.”

Barret nods.  “Yeah.  We got a life, even after everything that went wrong.”

Cloud looks at him, cocking his head a little.  “It’s a good life, I think.  Better than I might’ve hoped for.”

“I think we deserve it, though.”  He doesn’t like the idea of sounding entitled, but shit, they risked their lives to save the world.  He just thinks that that maybe means they should get to enjoy their lives afterward, that’s all.  “You, especially.”

“Me, especially?” Cloud asks, raising an eyebrow.  

“Uh-huh.  I mean, the shit Shinra and Sephiroth did to you...just for that, you oughtta have a good rest of your life.  Just so it’s fair.”  He shrugs a little.

Cloud smiles, just a little bit.  “Thanks,” he murmurs.

Taking a chance, because they’re walking close enough, Barret casually tosses an arm around Cloud’s shoulders.  “Anytime.”

“...We really should eat something,” Cloud says, but he doesn’t try to pull away.  He glances up at Barret again like he’s trying to figure him out.  Of course, there’s not a whole  _ lot _ to figure out, in Barret’s opinion.

But maybe...just maybe, today’s the right day to do something.  

At least, he’ll think about it.

 

* * *

 

It takes him until lunch time to decide he  _ is _ going to do something.  Cloud’s in the garage, fiddling with something in his bike, and Barret’s just kind of hanging around the bar, waiting for Marlene’s school day to end.

Another half hour passes after he decides he’s going to do something.  It takes a lot to get past the nervousness and inertia of the past couple of years.

But if he doesn’t do something, he thinks that maybe nothing will  _ ever _ happen.

So, he gets off his ass and finds the construction paper.  It’s a little more difficult to cut out a heart with his knife attachment, but he manages.  He finds a pen.

_ Hey, Spikey,  _ he writes,  _ here’s to living, yeah? _

He figures he shouldn’t get weird about it.  Keep it casual.  If he keeps it casual, this time, he probably won’t panic.

It takes him another fifteen minutes to drum up the nerve to go to the garage.

When he gets there, Cloud has grease stains all over his arms and the white tank top he’s wearing.  White’s not a usual color on him, to Barret’s knowledge, and he looks...striking.  Yeah.  Let’s go with that.

Cloud looks up.  “Hey.” He smiles a little.  “Need something?”

“Nah,” Barret replies, shaking his head.  He pulls the card out from behind his back.  “Figured I might give you something, though.”

Cloud blinks, eyes dropping to the little pink heart held gingerly between Barret’s fingers.  Barret feels anxiety grow in his gut; shit, it’s been two years, there’s no way of knowing Cloud might still be interested, if he ever even was to begin with.

It gets worse when Cloud gets up and moves over to Barret without saying anything.  He takes the card, his fingers brushing Barret’s.  “Not bad,” he says, tracing its edges.  

Barret needs a second to realize he’s teasing.

He reads the card and smiles a little.  “Yeah.  Here’s to living.”  There’s a warmth in his voice that makes Barret ache.

“If you ain’t got any plans later — you wanna come with me and Marlene to dinner?  I promised her we’d go out.”  He feels so damn awkward — he’s nearing forty now, and that just makes him feel more awkward at being so  _ bad  _ at this.

Cloud smiles a little wider.  “Yeah.  I’d love to.”

 

* * *

 

“Daddy, will you help me with my ribbon?” Marlene asks, rocking up on her toes as she stands in the doorway of Barret’s room.  “We’re gonna be going soon, right?”

Barret smiles at her, grateful for the interruption.  “Yeah, sweetheart, c’mon in.”

Once she’s inside, she hops up on his bed.  “I’m glad you asked Cloud to come.  Did you ask him to be your Valentine?”

“I mighta,” he says, smiling a little.  

She squeals.  “What did he say?!  What did he say?!"

He laughs, even though he’s not sure what to say to that.  “Well, I asked him if wanted to come out with us tonight,” he clarifies.  “And I gave him a card.”

Marlene bounces a little, frustrated-looking.  “Daddy, you gotta actually  _ ask  _ him!”

He pats her head.  “Okay, okay, I will.  Now, lemme do your hair.”

She settles down, and he can practically feel the excitement rolling off her in waves.  It helps soothe his nervousness — one of the many reasons he knows he’s so damn lucky to have her.

When he’s done with her hair, he ties off the little braid, and she turns around and jumps into his arms.  He laughs, catching her.

“All right, we should get goin’,” he says, gently setting her on the ground, and she rushes out of the room, laughing.

He glances at himself in the mirror as he moves to follow her.  He doesn’t look any different from normal, and it’s not like they’re going anywhere fancy, so he tries not to worry about how he looks.  

After all, Cloud’s seen him in much more dire straits than this, right?

He gets downstairs to find Marlene excitedly tugging on Cloud, who has apparently been having some kind of hushed conversation with Tifa at the bar.

“C’mon, Cloud!  We’re all ready!” Marlene tugs a little harder.

Cloud laughs and gets up.  “All right, I’m getting up.  I promised I’d come, didn’t I?”

“Uh-huh!”

Tifa catches Barret’s gaze and holds it, steady with a mix of amusement and measuring.  She’s always known about his crush on Cloud, even before he did, really.  Hopefully he passes muster this time around, now that they’re all doing all right again.

She smiles, and he nods, just a little, before Marlene crashes into his legs.

“All right, boys, don’t keep Marlene out too late,” Tifa teases, chuckling.  

“Daddy makes the bedtime rules!” Marlene calls back, giggling.  “You an’ Cloud only do when Daddy’s not home.”

Barret can’t help but laugh.  

And, he notices that Cloud is chuckling, too.

 

* * *

 

They go to a steakhouse for dinner.  Marlene calms down a little as they walk to the restaurant, and, about halfway there, she sidles between them and grabs each of their hands.  

Cloud seems surprised, his eyes flicking to Barret as if to ask if this is okay.  Barret smiles at him, just a little.

It’s...nice.  Nice, in a way Barret doesn’t really want to think about right now.

Keep it casual.  It’s just dinner.  Marlene’s with them.  It’s not even a date, really.  They’re just...having dinner.  Together.  The three of them.  Tifa’s got Denzel at home.  Everything is fine.

_ Everything is fine. _

Barret squeezes Marlene’s hand, and she squeezes back, looking up at him with a mischievous smile.  

Damn, for a six year old, she’s downright  _ sly. _

Cloud is smiling, just a little.  Barret’s seen the expression before — when something good happens, and Cloud’s not sure how it can be happening to him.

Barret’s not sure when he figured that look out, but he tries to suppress the little ache he feels anyway.  He wants Cloud to believe they can have good things, because, hell, Cloud, for Barret,  _ is _ one of those good things.

Soon, though, they reach the steakhouse, and Barret tries to put the thought out of his mind.

 

* * *

 

Halfway through dinner, Marlene excuses herself to go to the bathroom.  Barret only lets her because he's got line of sight on the door  _ and _ it's single-stall; better safe than sorry, in his opinion.

As she goes, though, she gives him a  _ look.  _ He realizes then that she probably doesn't even have to go; she wants him and Cloud to talk.

He figures he sorta owes it to her.  He inhales, but before he can say anything, Cloud speaks up:

“So, uh.  I was talking to Tifa earlier.”

“Yeah?” Barret asks, anxiety roiling his guts.  “'Bout what?”

Cloud bites his lip.  “Uh.  You, mostly.  This?”  He gestures vaguely.  “‘Cause, she thinks this is a date, and I’m not sure.”

Barret would be flushing, if that showed up on his skin.  As it stands, he just scratches the back of his neck.  “Well, do ya want it to be a date?” He isn’t sure what to call it, honestly.  He just knows that Cloud makes him feel a lot of shit, and he likes it, and he wants Cloud to know that.

“Yeah,” Cloud admits, blushing.  “If that’s alright with you.”

“Great,” Barret says, grinning a little.  “Y’know, Marlene keeps telling me I should ask you to be my Valentine.”

Cloud laughs.  “Yeah?  What did you tell her?”

“I promised her I would.”  His smile gets a little teasing.  “So, how about it?  Wanna be my Valentine?”

“Yeah, sure.”  

Any further conversation they might have is foregone when Marlene throws herself at Barret, yelling “Told you so!”

Barret and Cloud  _ both _ can’t help but laugh.

 

* * *

 

Barret is practically floating on air for the rest of the night, honestly.  It should feel silly, he thinks, rolling the word  _ Valentine _ around in his head.  He’s a grown man, and so is Cloud.  The idea of Cloud being his  _ Valentine _ shouldn’t make his chest feel this warm, should it?

“Y’know,” Cloud says, tone a little arch as they return from the steakhouse, “I wonder how Vincent handles the holiday, considering he shares the name and all.”

Barret snorts.  “Yeah, he doesn’t seem like the paper hearts an’ fancy dinners type to me.”

Marlene giggles.  “I made a card for Mr. Valentine, too.  I don’t think he should get left out just because he doesn’t have someone.”

“I’ll have to call him and let him know,” Cloud tells her.  She’s swinging between them again, her hands in theirs, and Barret’s not sure anything has felt this  _ right _ in a long time.

“Thank you!” Marlene leans against Cloud briefly before shifting back to being more evenly between them.

Barret doesn’t say anything else, but the smile never leaves him the whole way home.

 

* * *

 

By the time they get back to the bar, Marlene’s a little rambunctious; probably, she’s a little bit over-tired.

Tifa’s leaning on the bar, and there’s a couple of patrons around.  Sadder-looking than normal, most of them, and Barret feels bad for them, just a little.  Must suck to be alone on a night like tonight, he thinks.

It feels good, though, to know he’s not in  _ that _ camp.

“Tifa!” Marlene yells, and rushes over to her, ducking under the bar to wrap herself around Tifa’s legs.  “It worked!  Just like I said it would!”

Barret looks at  Cloud, who looks back at him.  In unison, they both look at Tifa.

Tifa shrugs.  “She could tell the two of you needed to work some things out,” she tells them, not unkindly.  “That’s why she asked Cloud to help with her cards on a day we knew you were coming home.”

“Yup!”  Marlene is grinning widely.  “And I was right!”

Barret chuckles, endeared.  “Yeah,” he says, then looks over at Cloud with a question in his eyes.  “Looks like you were.”

“How about, Marlene, you go up and hang out with Denzel for a while,” Tifa suggests.  

Marlene nods and scampers upstairs.  Tifa gestures with her head for Barret and Cloud to approach her at the bar.

“I know it might come as a surprise,” she tells them, a mischievous smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.  “But for the rest of us, this came as absolutely no surprise.”  She puts down the glass she’d been cleaning.  “Also, if you break each other’s hearts I’ll kill you both.”

Cloud laughs, a little.  “Yeah, I know you will.”

Barret shifts a little closer to Cloud.  “Understood, ma’am,” he says to Tifa, teasing.

She grins at both of them.  “But really, I’m happy for you both.”

“Thanks, Tifa,” Cloud says, softly.

Barret wonders just why about his tone, but he doesn’t question it.  There’s a lot he doesn’t know about Cloud and Tifa’s history together, after all.

For now, he’s just glad he can be part of their future.

 

* * *

 

The night is winding down, and Barret and Cloud have retreated to the corner booth where they’d helped Marlene make her Valentines.

When they’re mostly alone, then, Cloud leans against Barret’s shoulder and asks, quietly, “So, uh.  How long in the making is this?”

“Honestly?”

“Yeah.”

Barret sighs.  “Remember the Gold Saucer?” It had been a disaster.

“Yeah,” Cloud says, tensing a little, presumably at the memory.  

“Yeah.  All the fucked up shit I said that night, I said because I panicked.”  Barret shrugs his far shoulder.  “Doesn’t excuse it, but…”

Cloud’s hand lands on his flesh one.  “So you were crushin’ on me?” He asks, a teasing smile on his face.

“Hey, no fair.  You’re the one who wanted to ride the cable-cars!”  Barret curls his hand around Cloud’s.  It feels good, to be able to joke about this now.  “I think we both got no room to talk in the crush department.”

“Okay, point taken,” Cloud says.  “But we got here, anyway, y’know?”  He’s looking down and smiling, his face soft with genuine emotion.

“Yeah, we did,” Barret replies, squeezing lightly.

Cloud shifts a little.  “I know this might seem sudden, but — can I kiss you?”

The world drops out from under Barret, just a little.  “Yeah, of course.”

Cloud smiles, then pulls him close.

It’s just a kiss.  The heavens don’t open up (thank god), the music in the bar is a couple decades out of date, and Cloud’s lips are a little chapped.

But Barret would swear, in this moment, that it’s the best he’s ever had.


End file.
